cowofwar posted:

Thankfully my Canadian equity exposure is only 15%.

Playstation 4 posted:

Time to take advantage of my Florida-born father.

jm20 posted:

And you likely live in Canada and get paid in CAD. Equity exposure isn't the entire picture, we're all screwed.

etalian posted:

Since there's no robot around to attack me I can repost this:

https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239615/ishares-msci-canada-etf

Something is wrong in the economy when the most valuable canadian companies by market cap are in FIRE, energy and materials.

Newer industries such as healthcare and technology only make a tiny percentage up of the total canadian market cap.

Bip Roberts posted:

If only your father was the only human in Florida.

Playstation 4 posted:

Would he own the state if that happened, I think I'd rather just die than own Florida.

PT6A posted:

If I owned hell and Florida, I'd rent Florida and live in hell.

jm20 posted:

Isn't this already true? you live in Calgary

PT6A posted:

If I don't interact with any members of the public, it's usually a very enjoyable place to live.

El Scotch posted:

Wonder if I can buy the tallest hill in Florida; sell it as a private island down the road for big bucks.

Playstation 4 posted:

PT6A posted:

Au contraire; I like interacting with family and friends, and I don't mind the public in general, just in Calgary. I defy you to live here and feel otherwise.

EDIT: Also, wasn't the largest hill in Florida literally a huge pile of garbage? Or am I thinking of someplace else?

jm20 posted:

And you likely live in Canada and get paid in CAD. Equity exposure isn't the entire picture, we're all screwed.

quote:

In this year of mass layoffs in the energy sector, calls to the Calgary Distress Centre have changed tone and have become more frequent, says counsellor David Kirby.

"For me it says something really about the horrible human impact of what's happening in the economy with the recession and the real felt effect, the real suffering and the real struggle that people are experiencing," he said.

Kirby says demand for counselling services has increased by 80 per cent — and the problems people are struggling with are more complex.

"There might be substance abuse issues. There might be imminent financial collapse," he said.

"Anxiety, depression. Relationship conflict, maybe concurrent domestic violence. So there are many more things that people are trying to juggle I think at the same time."

quote:

"Today's remarks should in no way be taken as a sign that we are planning to embark on these policies," Poloz said. "We don't need unconventional policies now, and we don't expect to use them. However, it's prudent to be prepared for every eventuality."

The Bank of Canada twice this year cut its benchmark interest rate in an attempt to stimulate the economy.

But other countries have gone even further, slashing their rates below zero in an attempt to encourage spending and investment, instead of fearfully hoarding capital.

[...]

"Interest rates [for consumers] don't go below zero," Poloz said at a question and answer session following his speech, noting that in Switzerland and elsewhere, consumers still earn microscopic amounts on savings and pay tiny interest rates on commercial bank loans which are tied but not directly to the central bank. "We would expect the same sort of behaviour here."

"We now believe that the effective lower bound for Canada's policy rate is around minus 0.5 per cent, but it could be a little higher or lower," Poloz said.

[...]

Poloz announced another new unconventional measure added to the bank's arsenal: Funding for credit.

The option would ensure economically important sectors had continued access to funding even when the credit supply is impaired, Poloz said. That's exactly what happened in 2009 when the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) took mortgages off the books of Canada's big banks to free up cash for them to lend money to deserving borrowers.

etalian posted:

This news article will probably make CI hard:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/suicide-rate-alberta-increase-layoffs-1.3353662

Playstation 4 posted:

Time to take advantage of my Florida-born father.

Baronjutter posted:

So it looks like all the happened to alberta is that their unemployment rate finally got equalized with the rest of the country's.

Albino Squirrel posted:

So if our petrodollar collapses does mnufacturing benefit from whatever the opposite of the Dutch Disease is? The Dutch Cure?

Baronjutter posted:

It's almost like the private sector's short term and myopic focus and inability to cooperate or see the big picture is a loving disaster for society. It's almost like taking the complex and deeply interwoven things that support a society, compartmentalizing them, then saying they have to individually make a profit or they don't have value is going to destroy the society those things were supporting.

quote:

Almost 20pc of Melbourne's investor-owned homes empty

The number of empty houses and apartments in Melbourne is much higher than traditional estimates, with as many as one-fifth of all investor-owned properties lying empty, according to a study of water usage by think tank Prosper Australia.

Victoria leads the country in terms of new housing approvals and planning authorities gave the tick to 70,472 new dwellings in the 12 months to October – more than half of them apartments – but the Prosper figures indicate that while local and offshore investors are hungry for properties, they are not necessarily making those homes usable housing stock.

"There is an oversupply of housing that's not being used," said Catherine Cashmore, Prosper President and author of the report. "When the Victorian government talks about the need to build more housing to bring down prices, that strategy isn't working. We don't have anything to ensure those homes are being utilised. It doesn't matter whether they're foreign owned or investor owned the economic cost to us is enormous."

A total 82,724 properties used less than 50 litres per day – the equivalent of a dripping tap and far less than a single person's daily usage – suggesting they were effectively unoccupied, the data from retailers City West Water, South East Water and Yarra Valley Water shows.

Night light: apartments being deliberately kept vacant don't add to the country's stock of available housing, Prosper Australia says.

That's equivalent to 4.8 per cent of greater Melbourne's total housing stock and 18.9 per cent of all investor-owned housing stock.

As many as 24,872 properties consumed no water at all, making them clearly unoccupied.

The number of vacant properties leapt 28 per cent last year, according to Prosper's Speculative Vacancies report, now in its eighth year. The think tank advocates for broad-based land taxes to raise the cost of holding land unproductively, as well as for an end to stamp duty, which it says impedes the market for land transactions.

"Capital gains are a much more powerful market motive than earning mere rents," says Karl Fitzgerald, Prosper project director. "That's why the tax game needs to change."

The idea has support.

"Should there perhaps be some kind of differential land tax that changes people's incentives?" said independent economist Saul Eslake. "I have some sympathy with that view."

It's not clear how much of the vacant housing stock is foreign-owned and how much is locally owned. However, the Melbourne CBD – which has drawn much investment from overseas buyers – had the largest number of vacancies, with just over 1100 – 6.7 per cent of its 16,632 homes – using no water at all. Almost 15 per cent – 2478 properties – consumed less than 50 litres per day.

The student-heavy areas of Carlton and Carlton South had the highest ratio of empty homes with 7.6 per cent, or 597, of their total 7837 homes using zero water.

Melbourne's hidden vacancies will become visible if the property market slows.

"When we get a downturn in housing markets it does lead people to sell their properties or rent them out to the market, that's when these vacancies will become visible," Ms Cashmore said.

Albino Squirrel posted:

So if our petrodollar collapses does mnufacturing benefit from whatever the opposite of the Dutch Disease is? The Dutch Cure?

Seat Safety Switch posted:

We're going negative, kids.


Yessss central bank directly funding bad retail loans this is going to be awesome.

Count Roland posted:

I'd very much like to know what the thread thinks about this, since I don't even really understand what a negative rate means here.

Furnaceface posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qKy9iK_jDc

Count Roland posted:

I'd very much like to know what the thread thinks about this, since I don't even really understand what a negative rate means here.

Count Roland posted:

I'd very much like to know what the thread thinks about this, since I don't even really understand what a negative rate means here.

etalian posted:

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/negative-interest-rate-policy-nirp.asp

It means banks will starting charging depositors for holding cash in the bank.

I know it's a pretty weird concept.

sitchensis posted:

But RBC already charges me $10 a month to keep money in the bank

quote:

Late stages of every credit cycle, by definition, are built on a theory as to why this time is different.

This type of attitude was prevalent going into 2015, when credit markets largely dismissed the oil sector distress, choosing to believe that this was an isolated issue and will stay that way. Historical evidence pointed to the contrary, where no earlier precedents existed of the largest sector being in distress and the rest of the market remaining firm. Today, two out of three sectors in US HY have more than 10% of debt trading at distressed levels.

quote:

Or “the lowest of the junk rated bond market pose more elevated default risks- yet this cohort is where there is less research coverage, fewer banking relationships, limited trading volumes and very little liquidity. And when defaults start rising some of the tourists may not have the resources necessary to explain the losses in their portfolios when their proverbial shoulders get tapped.”